Hasina, Mamata to ring bell at Eden

The CAB will also give a special pink shawl to the Bangladesh Prime Minister

ByA Staff Reporterin Calcutta

Published 9.11.19, 4:05 AM

Updated 9.11.19, 4:05 AM

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly at the KIFF inauguration on Friday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will ring the customary bell before the opening day’s play of the Day-Night Test at Eden Gardens on November 22.

This was announced by Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) secretary Avishek Dalmiya on Friday.

The CAB will also give a special pink shawl to the Bangladesh Prime Minister. A pink ball-shaped memento with pink stones on it will also be handed over to Virat Kohli and Mominul Haque, the two captains.

A cultural programme, featuring Runa Laila and Shreya Ghosal, and felicitation of all India captains will take place after stumps on the first day.

Shreya may also sing the national anthem before the start of the game.

The players who competed in the first-ever India-Bangladesh Test in November 2000, a match in which Sourav made his debut as Test captain, will also be felicitated.

Four special mementos will be presented to Hasina, India home minister Amit Shah, Governor of West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankar and Mamata.

There’s also a plan to decorate all the highrises around the Eden with pink light. An exhibition of fireworks at the end of the match is also under consideration.

The CAB has already decided to release more tickets for online sales, in order to meet the increasing demand. If needed, some of the complimentary tickets may also be converted into priced tickets.

More then 17,000 tickets have already been sold online.

The CAB has asked all its affiliated units to inform the association by November 14 if they would be collecting their allotted tickets. Once that is finalised, the remaining tickets will be put on for sale.